The N5 Mini: A 3D-Printed 5-Bay NAS for 3.5″ Drives. The 175x175mm answer to the Minisforum N5. Use Whatever Mini PC You Want!
First of all, can we just acknowledge the beauty that is the Minisforum N5?
5 Bays. A pullout tray for the brains. The magnetic faceplate. Easy access IO. All tucked into a neat little package.
I love and adore this thing. The ($729 USD) Ryzen 7 255 packs 8 cores/16 threads, a 58-TOPS NPU and Radeon 780M for balanced home media, storage and light AI, while the ($1,299) Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370 brings 12 hybrid cores, ECC memory support, a 50-TOPS engine and Radeon 880M. The 255 nails everyday performance on a budget, whereas the 9 HX Pro 370 ensures headroom for heavier workloads.
It comes in these two flavors, but like, here’s the thing…
At these prices, it unfortunately really edges out the budget homelab user. Especially when put up against the notion of having to sell your current mini-pc that is potentially powering everything already…
Stupid AI slop to show budget minded folk are still waiting for a solution.
But WAIT. What if… you could re-use the mini pc you already owned?
Riiiight? That’s what I’m saying! Let me use whatever mini-pc I want, but give me the charm and glamour that I feel with the Minisforum N5!
What were the goals of this build?
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